Books on Brazil
recommended by journalists and historians
Last updated: February 06, 2025
The best books on Brazil aren't always available in English, however some that are—covering aspects of the country's history, literature and culture—have been picked out by journalists and academics on Five Books.
Brazilian novelists recommended on our site include modernist author Clarice Lispector (1920-1977) as well Machado de Assis (1839-1908) and his comic masterpiece, Epitaph of a Small Winner. Also included in our interviews are Paulo Coelho, author of the international bestseller The Alchemist, and a book of plays by Nelson Rodrigues, a leading figure in modern Brazilian literature.
For (mainly) nonfiction books about Brazil, we have recommendations from American journalist Larry Rohter, who spent many years reporting on Brazil. He includes a book on indigenous peoples by the French anthropologist, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Tristes Tropiques, and the tragic tale of the War of Canudos, in which 15,000 people were killed.
Football is central to Brazilian culture. Futebol: The Brazilian Way of Life is described as a "magical book" by British journalist Steve Bloomfield, a way of learning not only the story of Brazilian football but the story of Brazil more generally. The memoir of Brazil's most famous footballer and one of the sport's all-time greats, Pelé, is available in English.
Other notable Brazilians who feature on our site include Sergio Vieira de Mello, the assassinated Brazilian UN diplomat.
We also spoke to Suzana Herculano-Houzel, the Brazilian neuroscientist, about the best books on the brain.
If you're following Brazilian politics, there is a new biography in English of populist leader Jair Bolsonaro: Beef, Bible and Bullets: Brazil in the Age of Bolsonaro by Financial Times reporter Richard Lapper. For a good biography of Lula—the former union leader who worked his way up from abject poverty to become the 35th president of Brazil—we recommend Lula by Brazilian journalist and writer Fernando Morais. For now, it's only available in Portuguese.
The best books on Brazil, recommended by Larry Rohter
The former Rio de Janeiro bureau chief for the New York Times, Larry Rohter, discusses five books that explore the strain of tragedy lurking just beneath Brazil’s ‘happy’ image.
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1
The Last Abolition: The Brazilian Antislavery Movement, 1868–1888
by Angela Alonso -
2
Chica da Silva: A Brazilian Slave of the Eighteenth Century
by Júnia Ferreira Furtado -
3
Slave Rebellion in Brazil: The Muslim Uprising of 1835 in Bahia
by João José Reis -
4
The Trade in the Living: The Formation of Brazil in the South Atlantic, Sixteenth to Seventeenth Centuries
by Luiz Felipe de Alencastro -
5
Emancipatory Narratives & Enslaved Motherhood: Bahia, Brazil, 1830-1888
by Jane-Marie Collins
The best books on The History of Brazil and Slavery, recommended by Ana Lucia Araujo
The best books on The History of Brazil and Slavery, recommended by Ana Lucia Araujo
The history of Brazil is closely connected with the history of the slave trade, with nearly half the 12.5 million enslaved Africans transported to the Americas ending up there. Ana Lucia Araujo, a historian at Howard University and author of Humans in Shackles, talks us through the books that shed light on that history and how Brazil’s past cannot be understood without also studying its connections with Africa.
